Wizards star Bradley Beal believes that they were the original team to expose Ben Simmons during this year’s NBA Playoffs
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Ben Simmons and aggression can’t really go in the same sentence anymore, can they?
The 6’11” guard/forward’s stock couldn’t be lower right now, and honestly, it’s a grave he dug by himself. Despite having incredible athleticism at the size that does, the player looks scared to do anything on the offensive end of the floor. In fact, even his playmaking suffered dramatically because of his extreme lack of aggression.
The reason for all this is pretty obvious. Every time the player goes to the lane, he is fouled. As soon as that happens, he goes to the line. And for those that don’t know, shooing free throws aren’t exactly his strong suit. In fact, during the postseason, it was more shocking to fans if the player made a shot from the line, rather than missed it.
Of course, all of this has resulted in a complete lack of confidence in himself. And as soon as he no longer had that, he wasn’t even half as good a player he could be. But, while it is obvious to us as fans, and other teams now, it seems that Bradley Beal believes we all have him to thank for this knowledge.
Why? Let’s get into it.
“We kind of exposed the move of fouling Ben”: Bradley Beal talks about how Ben Simmons can be a liability to the 76ers
In many ways, Bradley Beal is the exact opposite of Ben Simmons. He isn’t a supersized player, only standing at 6’3”. What he is though, is a man filled with confidence, and one that can take and make tough shots while he is on the floor.
Given his game, the Wizards player knows a thing or two about the importance of confidence. So, when he faced off against Ben Simmons, he knew exactly what mind games to play. Here is what he said to CBS sports during an interview.
“We kind of exposed the move of fouling Ben (Simmons), putting him on the line a few times. Granted, I think in our series he actually made a few. So, we had to go away from that instead of just giving away free points. But they were two totally different series, two totally different teams (when Embiid was sidelined). Ben was more or less aggressive in our series, the first couple games, and then it kind of died down and trickled down from there.”
The 76ers are open to trading Ben Simmons and would like “an All-Star-caliber player in return,” per @ShamsCharania pic.twitter.com/z5jjNMdKwm
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 13, 2021
Looking back, what Beal says here couldn’t be more true.
At the end of the day, this is the problem with Simmons. And frankly, it may just be the reason why we see the player playing in a different jersey next season.
Also Read: When the ‘GOAT’ schooled his Wizards teammates at age 38